How important are snores?

[jab1972]

I'm six weeks in, my AHI is consistently 1-2, and I feel great. However, a couple weeks ago, my sleep doc & DME noted my elevated VS2 scores and upped my pressure to 16 and suggested adding a chinstrap. My leaks are better with the chinstrap, but my VS2 continues to range anywhere from 3 to 10+ (average of 4-5). How much should I be worried about my vibratory snore score (VS2)?

Also, is there a way to show a graph of VS2 in the overview of sleepyhead?

[Slartybartfast]

By themselves, they're not. However, snores are a sign of obstructed breathing, and usually are preliminary to apneic breathing. It's a sign that your pressure isn't quite high enough. The S9 Autoset and the Intellipap (and possibly other machines which which I'm unfamiliar) use vibratory snores as a cue to increase pressure when in automatic mode.

[jab1972]

Is it safe to ignore the snores (assuming everything else stays OK) until the doc pushes for a change in pressure? Or am I getting to a high enough pressure (16) where a different type of PAP might be called for by the doc? I feel like I may have lucked out the first time around with my current setup, and don't want to get caught without doing my homework next time.

[Pugsy]

The 3 to 10 VS2 numbers...are those the hourly index or total over the night? If the total for the whole night then for sure ignore them.

When my little pug dog sleeps up next to my head my PR S1 machine would score all sorts of the dog's snores as mine.

[jab1972]

That's the hourly index.

Your pug scored snores on your machine? Never underestimate the power of the pug.

[BasementDwellingGeek]

Also, is there a way to show a graph of VS2 in the overview of sleepyhead?

On the menu under File click Preferences, then in the graph tab can enable/disable a bunch of things, Snore being one of them.

[BasementDwellingGeek]

I just realized that there is a gizmo in the lower right of the graphs display section that allows a quicker mechanism to enable/disable graph displays. Green means the show, red means they don't. The more I use this application the more impressed I am.

[sleepinglass]

I have never considered vibratory snores as important.

I had 40 vibratory snore events last night.

However I am not sure how to interpret that??!!

[ChicagoGranny]

I'm six weeks in, my AHI is consistently 1-2, and I feel great. However, a couple weeks ago, my sleep doc & DME noted my elevated VS2 scores and upped my pressure to 16 and suggested adding a chinstrap. My leaks are better with the chinstrap, but my VS2 continues to range anywhere from 3 to 10+ (average of 4-5). How much should I be worried about my vibratory snore score (VS2)?

Also, is there a way to show a graph of VS2 in the overview of sleepyhead?

Are you aware that mask vibration caused by leaks will often be recorded as snores?

[Slartybartfast]

Here's an example of how snores are related to flow limitation. I recently decided to collect some data at my official 11 cm CPAP titration pressure. I've been running my machine in APAP mode for over 18 months and the pressure is normally below 10.5 cm 95% of the time. In AUTO mode Flow Limitation and Snores amount to little more than small squiggles on the baseline.

But in CPAP mode, note how the snore index corresponds to flow limitation in both time and magnitude, and how the Flow Limitation is recorded prior to and following episodes of snoring, and how the total envelope of flow limitation duration is always greater than that of snoring.



When running in AUTO mode, I have never seen either flow limitation nor snoring recorded to anywhere near the levels above. Had my machine been in AUTO mode, it would have detected the flow limitation before it caused snoring, and raised the pressure to prevent it.

This night's episode was not typical; I'm still collecting data in CPAP mode and haven't seen this since.

I think the progression of events in terms of severity goes something like this:

Flow Limitation --> Vibratory Snores --> Obstructive Apnea

[jab1972]

Are you aware that mask vibration caused by leaks will often be recorded as snores?

Yes, at least in the back of my head. But, while adding a chinstrap reduced my leaks significantly, the snores remained. Also, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between the timing of the leaks and the snores.

[Guest]

I'm six weeks in, my AHI is consistently 1-2, and I feel great. However, a couple weeks ago, my sleep doc & DME noted my elevated VS2 scores and upped my pressure to 16 and suggested adding a chinstrap. My leaks are better with the chinstrap, but my VS2 continues to range anywhere from 3 to 10+ (average of 4-5). How much should I be worried about my vibratory snore score (VS2)?

Also, is there a way to show a graph of VS2 in the overview of sleepyhead?

That level of snoring is practically "nothing".
If you're not doing nasal cleansing before bedtime, that may help reduce the snoring levels and help your air intake.
If you're using a higher humidifier setting, you might try turning it down or Off (passover mode). Too much humidity can actually cause more nasal congestion, which could exacerbate the snoring levels.

When I started therapy years ago, my snoring numbers were in the "hundreds". Now my average is right around 0.2.


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